It is an exercise in futility to expect that governments — and the Mbeki government in particular — will do anything to oust Robert Mugabe and his thugs.

Governments are part of the problem, rather than the solution, (“Neighbours’ silence on Mugabe the true tragedy,” September 21).

In addition to 4 million Zimbabwean refugees, 5-million Congolese are dead in “Africa’s first world war”. The United Nations reported in 2001 that Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Mugabe were “the godfathers,” but our government deliberately took no action.